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Homoworld in review and the end…for now.

Greetings all. Well, 2012 is at an end and a new year is here. Homoworld the blog started one year ago today. Back on January 1st 2012 I decided that I would set myself the challenge of taking a self-portrait each day, some of which would be used in a body of work I was planning on creating, and some of which would be just a series of self-portraits possibly representative of an ordinary gay man – through high points, low points, sickness, health, happy, sad, etc. (and the picture for today is after a New Year’s Eve party so I look particularly rough…..lol). Along with the self-portraits I decided that I would visit an LGBTQ news website each day and pull out a news article and draw attention to it with a little bit of writing.

Here I am one year later having completed my task. I have 365 self-portraits completed and 345 blog entries. The gaps in the blog were when my summer consulting job took over my life, but the daily pictures continued. But what did the whole project teach me and what did it produce other than those tangible things? First it taught me a lot about LGBTQ politics and current affairs. I thought that I was fairly politically savvy and well read. I realized that I did know a lot but there was also a lot that I didn’t know too. I learnt that a lot of people speak a lot of bollocks as well. I found out that I had misunderstood things about LGBTQ history. I learnt new terms. I learnt that some parts of the world have it harder than I knew and some parts of the world have it easier than I thought. I learnt that there are a lot of really fucked up people in this world. There are also a lot of people who love people and do a lot of good.

There are also some people who don’t understand things no matter how many times you try and explain something to them. But you keep on trying because it just might go in some day. I am proud and happy to say that I have had numerous emails from people around the world who have told me they have learnt things from my writings and my posts. That makes me really happy and has made this project worthwhile. I have also lost a few friends on Facebook too. But that is good and I am glad that they are gone. This blog helped weed them out and I clearly don’t need them in my life.

The biggest thing I have learnt over the course of this year is that change happens. I have seen amazing things happen in the LGBTQ world in just one little year. Just one little year! I can’t wait to see what happens in 2013. A number of people have asked me if I will continue Homoworld in 2013 as they look forward to it and read it every day. It won’t continue on a daily basis for now but it will be back so watch this space. Homoworld won’t be going away for good as there is a place for it, or so it seems.

So for now, so long. Happy New Year. Treat each other with love, respect, and equality. 2013 will be a banner year.